Hello Alamo!
Now that we all know exactly why Identity Politics exists as a term, the concept behind it, and why gripes against it are so insidious, anti-historical, and anti-Black, let’s get into intersectionality!
I did mention that the Combahee River Collective Statement was an early evolution. These Black feminists were developing a framework for their personal politics that actually viewed their human experience as part of the process, which in any other circumstance makes complete logical sense.
In 1989, legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw wrote a paper developing the idea that different parts of our identity can add up when it comes to bias. In the cases she cited, the law only accounted for employment discrimination based on sex, or discrimination based on race. But when those two identities met up, there was no legal framework to properly address it. These Black women had to choose which identity mattered more, being legally equal to a Black man, or to a white woman.
Approaching that mismatch legally is a baller move in my opinion. Legality has a bit more reach over all of our lives, and changing the institution’s rules to be more inclusive of lived reality is very impressive.
Ever since I learned about Crenshaw in my early college years, I’ve felt drawn to her framework. In 2017, Crenshaw discussed the legacy of intersectionality, and how it’s a “lens through which you can see where power comes and collides.” No, I’m obviously not a lawyer, but legal justice isn’t the only place in our society where racism exists, and plenty of people took the same lesson from her work.
In navigating our world and developing our attitudes about it, it’s important to keep reality in mind. I’ll use myself as an example.
I am physically disabled. Even though my disabilities are very visible, many people choose not to see them because I only need a few accommodations for them, which is its own problem. On the other hand. my best friend, who uses a wheelchair, needs a few more accommodations than I do, which she still has to fight for. If she were a Black woman who needed those accommodations, it would likely be even more difficult to be respected and trusted about what she needs, because anti-Black racism and anti-Black medical racism would be added on top of the sexism and infantilization too.
Notice, throughout this little exercise, I could respect my own autonomy and needs while recognizing others are fully autonomous with their own needs too. I never had to belittle my own humanity to respect how the intersections of their identity affect how they experience the world. At the end of the day, the problem is ableism, not other disabled people. To fight our own ego, we need to listen to and comprehend the experiences of those with more marginalized intersections than our own. That’s what community is supposed to be.
I would love to believe that every institution built to disenfranchise people based on biological sex, race, gender identity, ability, or whatever bias they’ve built up in their heads can be dismantled by making everyday people contend with reality, but I don’t know if that’s even possible anymore. Human beings are stubborn, and any deviation to peoples’ worldview can be seen as a threat. Do you remember when ‘social justice warrior’ was being thrown around as an insult?
Even though intersectionality was first coined to address the legal framework at the time, I don’t think Crenshaw would be horribly offended if we applied it to our everyday lives as well. More importantly, we need to respect where these concepts for learning how to see our full humanity and care for each other comes from.
Salud.
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